Veteran artist Christine Ilewski started a new lifelong project over a decade ago – almost by accident. At the time, she had no idea of the wide reach it would eventually have or the scores of people it would impact.
She created the nonprofit, Faces Not Forgotten, after the Rev. Lorenzo Rosebaugh, a priest whom Ilewski and her husband, Gary Huelsmann, met and became friends with while Rosebaugh was at the Oblate Fathers Novitiate in Godfrey, Illinois, was killed while in Guatemala.
“It was so shocking and disturbing – this senseless act of gun violence,” Ilewski said. “He was writing his memoirs, and was planning to come back to Godfrey to retire.
“Father Larry (as he was known) was a peaceful activist, and my husband and I used to ask, what can we do? He said, ‘You will know,’” Ilewski said.
She now realizes Faces Not Forgotten is her mission – though it isn’t in any way political.
“This is a memorial project to help give comfort to families and to honor children who are victims of gun violence,” she said.
“After Father Larry died, I was grieving, and I began to think my artwork was selfish, something that was just pretty,” Ilewski said. She Googled gun violence, and was horrified that so many children were losing their lives in the U.S. She found a website memorial for a boy named William. He was 16 years old, worked at a fast-food restaurant in Chicago, where there was a robbery, and he was shot and killed.
“I conversed with his dad, and asked if I could do a watercolor portrait of William to comfort him,” Ilewski said.
He sent her a photograph, she painted William’s portrait, and the project has grown from there. She realized she could use her talent to honor children, 20 and under, and their families, who had been affected by gun violence.
“I did the first 15 or so myself, but then there were so many that eventually, I needed help,” she said. But even though she doesn’t paint every portrait herself now, she does “touch” every single one by filling in the background or adding details.
Her friend, fellow artist and photographer Jane Linders, is the St. Louis director of Faces, helping primarily with organization and recruitment of artists.
The original portrait is donated to the family, and then quilts are created – in the manner of the Aids Memorial Quilt – that include children from a specific state or city. A JPG image of the original is graphically superimposed over an image of a vintage handkerchief (indicating a mother’s grief) and printed on canvas panels. These are tied together with black ribbon, and each quilt includes a logo panel and eight portraits to represent the eight children that die each day from gun violence in the United States. That may be through domestic violence, suicide or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Many times, it’s being caught in crossfire.
“There are so many stories of these children, whose lives are lost,” Ilewski said.
Two brothers in St. Louis were both shot and killed one morning on their way home from work.
“Another boy, Nick, was a pharmacy student, hanging out on a porch with friends. Somebody drove down the road and randomly fired shots. He was killed. Nobody else was hit,” Ilewski said. “Guns are so volatile. You can’t take it back, and people are dying.”
When Ilewski herself was just 20, her father died by suicide. She didn’t realize it at the time, and in fact, it wasn’t until she was about five years into the Faces project that she understood she was also a survivor of gun violence.
Quilts have been made with faces of children from St. Louis, another from the state of Missouri, several quilts from Chicago, where Ilewski said the problem is huge, Southern Illinois, Tennessee, Texas, Washington D.C., Indiana and Georgia, among others. More than 200 portraits have been painted.
June 5 was National Gun Violence Awareness Day, and the Faces project and the quilts have the same charge as the day’s observance – in addition to comforting families and raising the dignity of the children – and that is raising awareness.
Exhibits have been held at the Vaughn Cultural Center of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, the Central Reform Congregation, the Foundry, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Blackburn College, Soulard Art Market, the Maryland Heights Community Center, Regional Arts Center and Christ Church Cathedral, among others, including the Brady National Summit in Washington, D.C.
Crime Victims Advocacy of St. Louis has referred families to the project, along with other organizations in cities across the country, like Mothers in Charge in Chicago and Moms Demand Action.
Ilewski, who is from Alton, Illinois, and other artists involved in the Faces Not Forgotten project have traveled around the country with the exhibit. At each location, Ilewski gives a presentation about how it started and some of the children who were affected. Every child in the exhibit is named, and a bell is rung in honor of each one.
Faces Not Forgotten formed a board and received the 2013 Critical Mass Creative Stimulus grant. One angel donor has helped keep the project growing, with part of the money being used for a street banner with 21 portraits that has been carried in March for Our Lives, the Women’s March and family memorial marches.
But sponsors are important to this type of project. Ilewski and the other artists donate their time and talents, and more sponsors are always needed.
“We do not approach families or parents to have the portraits painted. We put information out, and they approach us when they are ready,” Ilewski said. “We do not charge for the portraits, but rather, we donate the painting to the family.”
For more information or to make a donation, contact Ilewski at christine.ilewski@gmail.com. To request a portrait, visit Faces Not Forgotten on Facebook to fill out a submission form.
Photos by Vicki French Bennington
